Dear Time magazine:

I am a Beijinger and came to US for graduate study seven years ago. I found Mr. Simon Elegant’s article in your May 5th issue interesting and would like to provide a perspective of my own. 

The article title raised a very good question: why China is mad, and it answered the question fairly well, but not by what Mr. Elegant talked about in the article though. Instead, he answered the question by exactly what he did not say.

Mr. Elegant attributed the recent Chinese demonstration to the "xenophobic" eduction that Chinese people receive from the Chinese government. This could not be further away from the truth. Every year, tens of thousands of the best Chinese young talents come to USA for studying. In fact, this is encouraged by Chinese education system. For instance, English is one of the mandatory courses that every Chinese high school student has to pass in order to graduate. How would Mr.Elegant think this could happen in a xenophobic society? Mr. Elegant pointed out that Chinese students were taught about the Opium War in their history classes as an example of the xenophobic eduction. However, the Opium War is as much true history as the Independence War. Is Mr.Elegant going to suggest that the American education is also xenophobic? In fact, if Mr.Elegant ever bothered to read Chinese textbooks, he would find so many westerner names: Marie Curie, Dr. Henry Norman Bethune, Edison, Washington, just to name a few. These names are just as admired by Chinese people as Li Bai, Du Fu.

So why is China mad? Throughout the article, Mr. Elegant did not spend a single word asking the question what the West exactly did that provoked such anger. It apparently never dawn to Mr. Elegant that, as a journalist, he could have at least TRIED to understand the situation from the point of view of the Chinese people and ask the possibility whether the West could have understood China better and handled things differently. Instead of bringing understandings to his American readers, Mr. Elegant branded the situation as "unpleasant" from the very first paragraph, and thus, led his readers to further misunderstanding. It is exactly such kind of arrogance, and the resulted biased portrayal of China that brought about the anger that Mr. Elegant felt so unhappy about. This is also why I would not expect Time magazine to publish this letter of mine, or letters that are similar to my view.

Finally, although I terribly sympathize with Mr. Elegant's distressed situation, I must say that many of his peers seem to handle much worse situations in other parts of the world with a lot more ease, without throwing accusations in their writings that are so personal and emotional. Mr. Elegant sounded like he was unprepared for the comments by Chinese blogger, which I found rather odd, since he should have known better that disagreeable voices are the nature of democracy. Despite his warnings to the world, I believe the world wants to discover China with their own eyes. Let time and reality tell how much warm welcome every guest will receive in China.

Sinerely